City of Wonder Cheats & Tips: Five easy ways to get ahead

City of Wonder is a simulation game developed by Playdom and played on Facebook where you can create prosperous civilizations which will let you progress through the ages while researching various technologies. You can interact with your Neighbors where you can explore their civilizations and either attack them or become strong allies that you can trade goods or cultural knowledge with to earn money and experience. The money you earn from your civilization can be reinvested to build your amazing City of Wonder. Gamezebo's City of Wonder strategy guide and walkthrough will provide you with a quick start guide, tips and tricks, hints and cheats on how to win.1. GETTING STARTED: OBJECTIVES/BASIC GAME ELEMENTS

- When you start the game you will be given 2 types of currency. 40,000 Silver Coins and 12 Gold Bars. You will earn this currency through various activities in the game and by leveling up. You can also purchase more currency to help you level up in the game faster. The silver coins are the basic currency of the game and the gold bars allow you to purchase high end items that will help you to advance in the game faster by completing long tasks immediately, adding large amounts of XP, and giving you huge advantages by purchasing legends which offer different types of upgrades to the game.

- You will immediately be introduced to the cultural advisor in the game which will at first give you objectives that serve as a tutorial to the game and as you advance further the objectives are there to allow you to earn more money and XP. To access the Objectives click on the image of the female in the upper right hand corner of the game screen next to the ?? As you complete these objectives arrows will point to things you need to click on and you will earn money and experience points for completing these objectives and will level up several times before all the objectives are completed.
Leveling up unlocks more items for you to purchase and earn in the game.

- As you add buildings to your City be sure to also add roads. (Dirt Roads are free) Each time you add a different building you will notice different people and eventually vehicles walking and driving on the roads.

- You will be encouraged to invite neighbors right away which is very important. You will need neighbors to build embassies on your land which will increase population and happiness in your City as well as increase your number of allies.

- The basics of building your civilization will include building various houses which move in population, adding various gardens to grow food to sell, and research different types of materials which can be mined, and traded with other neighbors. You will also be able to consult with your Cultural advisers to discover new technologies to increase population, knowledge and happiness.

- There are several special items that can be purchased with gold that give you advantages in the game such as finishing research faster, increasing XP, or earning more coins in shorter amounts of time.

- Each day you log in you will earn a daily bonus. TIP - If you "Like" the game's page at Facebook or follow the guide at the top of the screen you will earn an additional 10 percent of your daily bonus each day. If you you log in for five consecutive days you will earn a huge cash and XP bonus.

- You will be able to do many things in your Civilization such as attack enemies or trade with Allies during Expeditions, Complete Collections, Build elaborate Gardens, and build "Marvels" such as Stonehenge, The Great Pyramids, and Trojan horses for your City.

- A strong military defense is important as others will attack you in expeditions and the more protected you are by a strong militia the better. Be sure to research so you can access materials needed to build weapons.

2. Building and Placing Items in your Civilization

- Each building you place in your civilization has a way of earning you money and XP over a specific amount of time. you can decrease this amount of time by using Gold bars which you can purchase or earn when you level up in the game.
At the bottom left of the screen you will see a menu which will let you choose which type of activity you would like to participate in while playing the game.

- To Build an item click on the "Building" button and another menu will open up showing you different types of houses. The cost is along the bottom. Note each house's cost is listed in edition to type. Each building will earn you a certain number of XP and money after the time has passed.

- TIP - You can place your mouse over any structure to see how much time is left before you can click on it collect funds from it. A small icon will appear over the building to show you when an item is ready or ready for additional actions.
Once you click on the building you wish to place you will see the game board divide into a grid with small squares. Some buildings take up one square and some can take up 4 or more at a time.

- When you try to place an item and it outlines in red it is too big for the area and you will need to either expand your land or move to another area with more open space.

- If a building can be placed you will see it completed in a shadow form with a green border. Once you are sure of your placement click on that area and you will see construction of your building begin. If you place your mouse over this area it will show you how long until the building is complete.

- Once the building is completed it will immediately begin to earn money for you. If it is a market, or garden you will need to click on it and assign something to grow.

- Some buildings will require that you clean them before you can use them again. There is no charge to do this but if you forget you will not be earning money.

- You can grow goods in the gardens but be sure you open the game and harvest them before they spoil. If they spoil you will lose all of your investment.

- IMPORTANT - Note that each residence will earn population for you every so many minutes. You can find this out by placing your mouse over the home you are considering in the purchase menu. It will say something such as, "24 population every 25 minutes". If you place this house you will earn 24 population ever 24 minutes but you will have to be in the game to click on the house to collect it.

- Click on an item while the building menu is open and then click on a building and you will be able to rotate, move, or sell that building.

- Random Free Bonuses - The more often you are in the game and collect from your buildings the higher the chances are you will earn a random free bonus. This could be coins, XP, a legend, or all of them at once.Legends of History - Legends are upgrades you can purchase to give you huge benefits in the game. Some can only be gifted to you by neighbors and some can only be purchased with gold bars or earned during certain levels. You can only use 3 legends at a time maximum and once their benefit is completed you will need to purchase another one if you want to continue to use their benefit.

- You can also work on a collection book in the legend section. Click on "Collections" and you will see you can collect all the legends. (These are people - legends such as "Socrates" or "Michelangelo" and are divided into sections such as Artists, Tycoons, and Ancient Thinkers)

3. VISITING NEIGHBORS & BUILDING EMBASSIES ON EACH OTHERS' LAND

* Neighbors are critical to build your Civilization and to trade and gift items with. If you want to level up and earn funds quickly, adding neighbors is your best move.

* You can send your neighbor a free gift once every 24 hours and they can send one to you as well. Click on the "Free Gift" button at the top of the game screen.

* Once you accept someones invitation to be neighbors you will find them located at the bottom of the game screen in order of game score.

* Click on them to visit.

* As soon as you accept a Neighbor's invitation or they accept yours you will find their Embassy in your gift area. Place their embassy on your land by clicking on it in the menu area then clicking on the area in your land you wish to place it. (You can always move it later if you change your mind) and when a neighbor visits you they will be able to click on their embassy to earn 100 Silver Coins once every 18 hours and you will have 50 happiness points added to your City for every Embassy placed in it.

* NOTE - Do not forget to place your neighbors embassy on your land as soon as possible. They will not be able to collect a reward if they visit you and it is still in your gift storage area.

* The more neighbor embassies you have on your land the more Neighbors will visit you, the happier your inhabitants will be and the faster you will level up and earn money to reinvest into your City.

* In turn, your neighbor will receive your Embassy and place it in a City in their Nation. When you visit them each day click on your Embassy to collect 100 Silver Coins per neighbor every 18 hours.

* When you visit a neighbor you will see a small icon over your Embassy. Once you collect your 100 Silver coins you can place your mouse over the embassy to see a countdown clock showing how much time you have left to collect again.

* NOTE - During the objective Tutorial you will be asked to "Visit Sophia" this is a Neighbor given to you by the game for tutorial purposes but you can still visit and place Sophia's Embassy in your City.

4. RESEARCHING

# Any great Civilization researches to improve the life of its inhabitants and in City of Wonder you will have advisers that will show you what to research and as you complete this research you will unlock items that your City can build, sell and trade with neighboring cities.

# To research you will need to click on the research button and purchase the area you wish to research.

# Be sure to choose an advisor and listen to what they tell you in terms of what to research. Your choices affect the types of items you can build.

# Once you have completed the research you will earn a coin and XP bonus as well as unlock items to trade and sell.

# You will be able to research things such as Mysticism, religion, Writing, and Pottery. Each research topic takes a certain amount of time and if you wish to use gold bars to instantly finish the research that is available. If you choose to wait a countdown clock appears under the "Research" tab at the bottom left of the screen.

# TIP - Try to always keep research going at all times as sometimes you can't level up until certain items are completed.

# You may also have neighbor requirements for some research so make sure you keep increasing your ally count.

# Many buildings will have research requirements that have to be fulfilled before you can purchase them so be sure to mouse over the buildings and read through what is needed so you can plan how to spend your money and time.

# Look in the upper right hand corner of the game screen to see what is currently being researched and how much time is left before it is ready to collect.

# Click on the Research button and then you will be notified that research is complete and it will tell you which items the research has unlocked for you to purchase.

# NOTE - In the upper right corner of each item you will see a little symbol which will tell you which research items you will need to be able to purchase that building or item. It will bring up a map that shows how all research is connected.

5. EXPEDITIONS

* Another fun facet of City of Wisdom is that you can go on Expeditions. You can leave your Civilization and explore several others. You can choose to attack, trade goods, or exchange cultural knowledge with neighboring Civilizations.

* If you do choose to attack the winner will be whoever is better equipped with weapons and militia and a higher level of research. You do not necessarily have to have a higher population to win but it does help, so grow your population as much as possible and keep them happy and researching.

* The more you build up your trading, militia, and cultural knowledge the more likely you will be able to win when attacked.

* To go on an Expedition click on the "Expedition" button at the bottom which is the tab with the globe. (You earn an expedition every 30 minutes. If you put your mouse over the globe icon you will see a number in the corner which is the number of expeditions you have and a countdown clock letting you know how long until you can add another expedition. You are allowed a maximum of 10 expeditions at a time. Once you are in the expedition screen it is stated at the bottom of the page how many expeditions you can currently participate in.

* You will now see a map with names of your Neighbors and others you may not have on your friend list. If you place your mouse over their land you will see statistics as to how many wins and losses they have had. You will have to decide if you want to attack that player, skip them, trade with them, or exchange cultural knowledge with them. Once you make your choice a screen will appear telling you if the expedition was successful for you, the other person or both of you. You will earn more XP and coins if you are the winner and then you will be offered to post a bonus that both of you can share which will post to your Neighbor's Facebook profile. If they choose to click on the link they will earn a silver coin bonus.

* Expeditions are a fast way to earn XP and extra income as well as increase your population and cultural knowledge.
This article originally appeared on Gamezebo.

Got any other great tips for City of Wonder? Or just looking for people to play the game with? Leave a note in the comments below.